In 2014, a former aviation professional and a former sound engineer looked at a degraded patch of agricultural land in Tadoba’s buffer zone and saw a forest. Two years later, two spotted owlets arrived while they were setting up their farm — stayed, made themselves at home, and gave the place its name. Today the land has 93 documented bird species, three tiger reserve-named cottages, and a conservation mission that uses the homestay as both base and proof.
Tadoba is Maharashtra’s tiger country — the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, in the Chandrapur district, holds one of the highest tiger densities of any reserve in India and has the particular quality of a deciduous forest ecosystem in which wildlife is both abundant and, because the forest is relatively open compared to the Terai or the Deccan, genuinely visible. The tigers here are famous. The birdlife is extraordinary. The buffer zone — the protected area surrounding the core reserve, where farming communities live alongside wildlife corridors — is where The Spotted Owlet Homestay sits, two kilometres from the main Moharli Gate, on a plot of land that was, in 2014, a degraded agricultural field with little to recommend it.
Avantika Chandra saw potential. She had spent twelve years in the aviation industry in New Delhi before something she describes simply as instinct led her, in 2010, to quit her corporate career and devote herself to wildlife and forest conservation. By 2013, she had been joined by Hans Dalal — a sound engineer whose love for the outdoors had been kindled since childhood and whose relationship with tigers had been transformed by a specific encounter in 2007 that changed the direction of his life. Together, Avantika and Hans founded PROWL: an NGO dedicated to tiger conservation in India, with a hands-on field presence that includes camera trapping, forest guard training, anti-poaching support, and community uplift programmes across multiple tiger reserves.
PROWL needed a base in Tadoba. The empty field in Bhamdeli village, two kilometres from Moharli Gate, became that base.
The Land and What They Made of It
The two-acre patch was degraded agricultural land — stripped of its original ecosystem by years of intensive farming, low in biodiversity, without the structure of a natural habitat. Avantika and Hans planted it. They let it recover. They managed the process with the knowledge of conservationists who understood what a functioning forest ecosystem actually looks like and what it needs to establish itself.
The transformation took years and is ongoing. Today, barely 5% of the farm has been developed for guests. The remaining 95% is living, growing wildlife habitat: hare, mongoose, snakes, scorpions, lizards, tigers and leopards moving through. A scientist and birding expert friend of the property, Ajay Poddar, conducted a formal survey and documented 93 species of birds on the Spotted Owlet property — an extraordinary count for two acres anywhere in India, and a testament to what happens when degraded land is left to recover with care.
In 2015, as the farm was being set up, two spotted owlets arrived. They stayed. They were, as Avantika and Hans describe it, great company. The farm was named after them.
The Cottages
There are three private jungle cottages, each named for a national park that holds significance in Avantika and Hans’s conservation careers: Ranthambore, Tadoba, and Bandhavgarh. The naming is not decorative — it is a statement of the intellectual world from which the homestay emerged, a living tribute to the tiger reserves that shaped the people who built this place.
Each cottage is designed in the style of its namesake region: the geography, materials, and aesthetic of each named national park informing the space that takes its name. The cottages are spacious, air-conditioned, with large private verandahs, earthy natural materials, and the surrounding forest as the primary view from every sitting area.
The Corbett Bungalow is a separate unit offering two double rooms with attached bathrooms, a private living area, and a fully equipped kitchen — ideal for extended stays or for small family groups who want more space and self-sufficiency. The bungalow is nestled among towering trees and diverse shrubs and carries the rustic charm of a forest bungalow with all the practical comfort of a well-equipped modern space.
All rooms have AC, hot and cold water, private bathrooms with shower, bathroom amenities, fresh linen, a drip coffee machine, tea and coffee station, mini fridge, luggage rack, extra charging points, wardrobe, and a private verandah.
The Farm and the Kitchen
The Spotted Owlet operates with a genuine farm-to-table philosophy — seasonal produce from the farm goes directly to the kitchen, which is run by an in-house chef who serves scrumptious multi-cuisine buffet meals. All meals are included in the stay. The outdoor seating areas allow guests to eat, drink tea, or simply sit in silence in the middle of the farm, with the forest pressing in around them.
A dip pool provides relief during Tadoba’s famous heat — the Central Indian summers are intense, and the ability to cool down and return to the outdoors refreshed is, in this climate, a practical luxury. A barbecue in the evenings, and the outdoor seating areas that allow guests to be in the farm environment from dawn to dark, complete the sensory picture.
The butterfly garden in the Agarzari buffer zone — which the property can arrange visits to — is one of Tadoba’s distinctive natural attractions, a curated space in the buffer that has become a significant destination in its own right.
The PROWL Mission
Staying at The Spotted Owlet is not simply staying near a tiger reserve. It is participating, however modestly, in the work of two conservationists who have devoted their lives to tiger protection. PROWL’s activities that Hans and Avantika describe as typical: first aid training for forest guards in the Sundarbans, camera trapping in Umred with Sanctuary Asia, self-purification water bottle distribution in Ranthambore and Tadoba, monitoring of tiger movement between Maharashtra and Telangana, camera trap workshops for 230 forest guards in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. Community uplift in Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha.
Guests at the Spotted Owlet are welcomed into this world as guests. They can discuss the work with Avantika and Hans directly. They can understand, from people who have spent years in the field, what is actually happening in India’s tiger reserves — the genuine achievements, the ongoing challenges, the specific characters of specific animals that Hans has tracked with camera traps across the landscape.
Hans’s background in sound engineering also led him to an unusual conservation project: combining his audio skills with his love for music to create an alternative income source for local communities in Ranthambore. This is the kind of specific, creative intervention that PROWL brings to its work — and conversations about it at the Spotted Owlet are, by all accounts, among the most interesting hours of any visit.
Why It Stays With You
The spotted owlets arrived in 2015 and proved to be great company. Ninety-three bird species have followed. The land that nobody wanted is now a living habitat for tigers, leopards, and a diversity of wildlife that most visitors to India’s major cities will never encounter in their daily lives. The cottages named for tiger reserves remind guests, every morning on waking, where they are and why this place exists.
Avantika and Hans did not build a jungle resort. They built a conservation base that happens to welcome guests, on land that they chose to restore because the work they were doing required presence and the presence required a home. The spotted owlets named the home. The rest followed.
Plan Your Visit
Address: Plot No. 10A, Bhamdeli Village, Moharli, Chandrapur District, Maharashtra — 442404 Phone / WhatsApp: +91 83830 80353 / +91 89995 28758 Email: tsobookings@gmail.com Website: thespottedowlet.com Instagram: @thespottedowlet Booking: Direct via website (Book a Room) · Also on Booking.com and MakeMyTrip
Founders: Avantika Chandra (conservation director) and Hans Dalal (wildlife photographer, conservationist, sound engineer) NGO: PROWL — tiger conservation organisation active across multiple Indian tiger reserves
Location: Tadoba buffer zone · 2 km from Moharli Gate · Bhamdeli village · 2-acre organic farm (95% undeveloped wildlife habitat)
Accommodation: 3 Jungle Cottages + 1 Corbett Bungalow — Jungle Cottages — Ranthambore, Tadoba, Bandhavgarh: private, styled in the geographical theme of their namesake parks. All with AC, attached bathroom, private verandah, drip coffee machine, mini fridge. — Corbett Bungalow: 2 double rooms + private living area + fully equipped kitchen. Ideal for extended stays or families.
Meals: All meals included (buffet, multi-cuisine, farm-to-table) · In-house chef Facilities: Dip pool · Outdoor seating areas · Barbecue · Farm · Butterfly garden visit (Agarzari buffer) · 93 documented bird species on property · Free parking Check-in: 2:00 PM · Check-out: 11:00 AM
Wildlife on property: Hare, mongoose, snakes, scorpions, lizards, 93 bird species (documented), tigers and leopards (movement recorded)
Experiences: Jeep safaris into Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (Moharli zone) · Butterfly garden visit · Farm walk · Wildlife observation on property · Birding (93 species) · Discussions with Avantika and Hans on conservation · PROWL activities (on request)
Getting There — Nagpur Airport (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport): approximately 150 km — around 3 to 3.5 hours by road. Taxis readily available. — Chandrapur Railway Station: approximately 38 km — around 1 hour by road. — From Nagpur city: approximately 150 km via Chandrapur. — From Mumbai: approximately 750 km — around 12–13 hours by road or overnight train to Chandrapur (approximately 12 hours on Vidarbha Express), then taxi to Moharli. — From Hyderabad: approximately 350 km — around 6 hours. — The property is 2 km from the Moharli Gate on the Tadoba buffer road. Coordinate final directions with Avantika or Hans before arrival.
Nearby — Moharli Gate (Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve): 2 km · Chandrapur: 38 km · Nagpur: 150 km · Agarzari Buffer Zone (Butterfly Garden): 15 km
Best Time to Visit: October to June for safaris · February to May for the best tiger sightings as the summer heat drives wildlife to waterholes and the forest vegetation thins · March to May is peak tiger season — the landscape at its most dramatic and the sightings at their most reliable · November to January for cooler weather and active birdlife · Avoid July to September (park closed, monsoon)
